A fairly ordinary girl with an extraordinary love of life and words. I really can’t shut my brain off to what is wonderful and wonderous all around me. Friendly (most of the time), except at four in the morning when I wake up (and even then I’m generally affable), intensely curious, and trying to find a home for my YA novel. Any questions or just want to say ‘hi’ go ahead and drop me a note at heatherzundel [at] gmail [dot] com. I’d love hearing from you.

Followers

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): Falling For the Time by Barenaked Ladies

Contests!

Over at Steph Su Reads she is having her mega-blogoversary giveaway. And she has just recently reached 900 followers, so congratulations to her! Ends Feb 28th, so hurry!

Speaking of huge giveaways, Storywings "little" 49 follower giveaway has exploded to over 243 (as of this posting. With each new benchmark, she adds more books. At this point, it's staggering. Luckily you have until March 19th with hers. And it is international, always a plus.

Bree Despain, author of the highly popular The Dark Divine book(s), is also holding a contest. Her supercool husband invented something sweet. I think it will be making many mommies very happy. Go check it out. Prizes include a YA book of your choice, a signed copy of The Dark Divine, or even a 15 page manuscript critique by her. Now that is what I call nice winnings. Hurry though, this one also ends Sunday Feb 28th.

Other Coolness!

I love The Spectacle blog. Lots of different authors with some really cool articles. Very spiffy. One that impressed me recently (for all you writers out there) is Jo Whitmore's analysis of The SHOWDOWN, you know, the final climactic moment in your book of epic awesomeness. She breaks it down really well and makes it easy to understand.

And since I'm a nerd, I'm including this, eight months before Halloween. Like scary stories? Ever wonder what some the famous places that inspired these stories look like? Wonder no more. The Smithsonian magazine has put together Real Places Behind Famously Frightening Stories.

And don't forget to check the amazing and fabulous Nathan Hale's blog. He is doing a picture book marathon, as well as the incredible Land of Doom comic series, where he and Yellowbelly (his fantastic creation) infiltrate the intense world of Children's Publishing. He just got to the YA category. Oh yeah. Go check it out.